As the NFL continues to tweak rules to ostensibly improve player safety, one highly respected player says there’s a significant hole in the process. Steelers safety Troy Polamalu says players deserve a say in the rules-altering scenario.

"There's rule changes every year," Polamalu said in an interview on ESPN "SportsCenter." "I do wish, however, that the NFL did have a voice from the players' side, whether it's our players' union president, or team captains, or our executive committee on the players' side. Because we're the guys that realize the risk, we're the guys on the field."

Polamalu was reacting to the new rule designed to stop players from using the crown of the helmet to deliver blows in the open field. The rule was created primarily to prevent ballcarriers from using the helmet as a weapon in the open field. Owners passed the rule by a vote of 31-1.

"We're professional athletes, so we can adjust, but we grow up understanding instinctively how to play the game of football, and it's really hard to say, 'OK, eventually I'm not going to be able to use my head, or wrap with my arms' or whatever it may be," Polamalu said. "I think you can only do so much to the game before you really start to change the essence of our sport. Our sport is not made for anybody to be able to play it, especially at the NFL level, so there's obviously some risk that we all take knowingly.

"Football is a very physical sport, and a lot of what separates the good from the great (is) the ability to receive contact, to give contact, to overcome the mental block of injury when you have contact. I understand that they want the sport to be safer, but eventually you're going to start to take away from the essence of this game, and it's not really going to be the football that we all love and have a passion for."